The A113 Easter Egg Is Everywhere

April 2, 2016 - Animation, Movies, TV,

Author: Peyton

Room A113 or sometimes A-113 is a massive inside joke (easter egg) that spans many years, almost almost every DisneyPixar film, and dozens of animated TV shows. It is a reference to a classroom at the California Institute of Arts where both Pixar’s John Lasseter and Brad Bird (@BradBirdA113) attended. Pronounced “A1-13” the small classroom is used by character animation students at the design school. First used by Brad Bird for a license plate number in the Family Dog episode of Amazing Stories it has since appeared in American Dad!, The Powderpuff Girls, Family Guy, The Simpsons, and South Park – among many others. While appearing mostly disguised as license plates, serial numbers, and of room numbers, the A113 has even appeared in roman numerals (ACXIII) in Brave.

The easter egg is not limited to animated content, it is also found in live action TV and feature films. In a Doctor Who episode called “Flatline”, (the ninth episode of Season 8) the first train carries the code A113, and in the second episode of Firefly “The Train Job”, the registry number of the train is A113. It can even be found in Marvel’s The Avengers feature film (twice).
Enjoy finding easter eggs? Disney recently revealed Hank the seven legged octopus has been hiding in every Disny Pixar film from Toy Story to The Good Dinosaur. Hank has been camouflaged in at least one scene in every film. According to Oh My Disney the secret was so well-kept, that internally Disney employees didn’t know about the “septopus” (Hank only has seven tentacles) was hiding in every film. Andrew Stanton from Pixar said, “Hank started off as a bit of an inside joke between those of us who were here at Pixar in the very beginning, but since then, finding a place for him in our films has become part of our culture. And I’m glad we finally get to introduce him properly to fans.”

Below are a few example of the A113 hiding in the wild. You can find a fairly comprehensive list of A113 sightings on the Pixar Wiki and The Chive.